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- Feb 5, 2017
Civil War Surprises: We Didn't Know She Was Pregnant - Emerging Civil War
I probably confused the internet search engines this week when I typed “How to hide pregnancy.” No, dear reader, I am NOT having a baby anytime soon. Let me be clear about that! But I was thinking historically about some Civil War research notes I’d been reviewing and trying to understand how it...
emergingcivilwar.com
Go to the ECW Thread to read ALL the stories!
Colonel Adrian Root from the 94th New York Infantry explained the details as he saw them to his mother:
"When I was last on duty as General Officer of the Day I came across a very singular case of illness out on the picket line…. A corporal of a New Jersey regiment who was on duty with the pickets complained of being unwell, but little notice was given his complaints at first. His pain and other symptoms of severe indisposition increased, becoming so evident that his officers had him carried to a nearby farmhouse. There the worthy corporal was safely delivered of a fine, fat little recruit for the…regiment!"https://emergingcivilwar.com/2023/04/28/civil-war-surprises-we-didnt-know-she-was-pregnant/#_edn1
Lieutenant Sam Partridge of the 13th New York Infantry wrote on April 10, 1863. It's not quite clear if the last name "Blank" was really the soldier's name or a way that Partridge protected her identity.
Last night Corporal Blank was reported sick, was sent to the hospital tent and examined by the surgeons, said examination causing a great commotion among the doctors and hospital attendants, and the report thereof causing[?] a general laugh among the officers.
In the course of the night Corporal Blank gave birth to a fine boy — genuine child of the Regiment. It's about the gayest thing I've heard of yet. She enlisted as a man last August. The regiment came to the field early in September, and here amidst the ten thousand things which ought to have shown her sex, she's preserved it undiscovered for seven months. Bully for her.
She's got her discharge now anyhow.[ii]
Altus H. Jewell[iii] of the 77th New York wrote April 10, 1863, about the same incident and also claimed that the woman was from a New Jersey regiment: "It was as much surprising to the Company that she belonged to as it is to me or you. The Company had noticed that she always tented with one person, and many times when it was her turn to come on duty that her tent mate would take her place."[iv]
Stafford County Museum - Camp of 110th Pennsylvania Infantry
This camp of the 110th Pennsylvania Infantry in the winter of 1863 shows a typical camp and the general condition of the once forested Stafford County.
staffordcountymuseum.com
While Sam Partridge emphasized that the woman had only been enlisted for seven months (is it possible that he was trying to imply she had not conceived while in the ranks?), other versions of the stories claimed that she had been with her regiment for more than a year and had fought during the Seven Days' Battles and at Antietam and Fredericksburg.[v] One record says she had been wounded at Antietam. A colonel described her as "a young and good looking corporal" whose "courtesy and military bearing…struck the officers very favorably" as a "real soldierly, thoroughly military fellow." "A corporal was promoted to sergeant for gallant conduct at the battle of Fredericksburg—since which time the sergeant has become the mother of a child… What use have we for women, if soldiers in the army can give birth to children?"[vi]
In the Union's Army of the Cumberland on April 17, 1863, a sergeant "always attended to his various duties with promptitude and care—and nothing out of the way was discovered of him until…he gave birth to a large boy."[xiii]However, the Western Theater army did not seem to welcome the baby news as cheerily as the Army of the Potomac. General William S. Rosecrans fired off an angry telegram to the XX Army Corps. "The Medical Director reports that an Orderlie[sp] Sergent[sp] in Brig Gen Johnsons Division was to day delivered of a baby—which is violation of all military law and of the army regulations. No such case has been known since the days of Jupiter. You will apply a proper punishment in the case, and a remedy to prevent a repetition of the act."[xiv] Exactly what he meant by punishment and prevention isn't quite clear.
Bringing the